Online Data Protection in Japan

Until recently, the rapid growth of the Japanese§e-commerce industry was not paralleled with an§increase in privacy legislation to safeguard online§personal information. The Japanese bureaucracy§attempted to fill this vacuum by releasing§self-regulatory guidelines that were originally§promulgated in the United States. However, the§results of a content analysis showed that in spite of§this, Japanese Web sites still lagged far behind§their American counterparts in the development of§effective privacy policies. The author posits that§the ineffectual emulation of American made guidelines§was due to the varying cultural standards that are§found in both countries. In particular, an attempt§will be made to focus on the role of studied§nonobservance as a direct impediment towards the§development of effective privacy legislation in§Japan. With the conduct of e-commerce being§trans-boundary and the Japanese people pressing for§stronger judicial enforcement, it is perhaps time for§industry and government leaders in Japan to rethink§their strategy of enacting privacy protection§safeguards based on traditional Japanese culture.